last post!

After these first 2 postings I realised my phonetic spelling of the much loved NZ shellfish was incorrect. Postings were therefore transfered to the blogspot

http://www.toheroa-jim.blogspot.com/

having the correct spelling. I would like to remove all trace of this testiment to my notoriously bad spelling but do not know how. If anyone can help I would be grateful.

curious ice rings central park new york

A recent trip to New York in mid February, 2010, followed the heavy blizzards that saw much of the eastern seaboard experiencing snow falls heavier than anything seen for the previous 10 years. While spared the worst of these blizzards the city of New York saw significant snow falls. Streets had thick coverings of snow, transport systems were seriously disrupted and the lakes and ponds of Central Park had extensive areas of thick surface ice. Central Park reservoir had large areas of ice thick enough that even 2 days later were still capable of supporting larfe flocks of gulls. It was in the vicinity of the edges of these sheets of lake ice that the ice-rings were found to have developed. Picture 1 (this is the first of the pictures above - I have yet to figure out how to format these more effectively) shows the location where these ice-rings were observed. One of these ice-rings can be seen near the left border of the ice sheet close to the eastern edge of the reservoir. Other areas exhibiting clusters of ice-rings are shown in Pictures 2 and 3.

Those shown in Picture 2 were at the time of observation typified by central areas in which there was either no ice or ice that was relatively thin compared with the surrounding ice sheet. The circular edge ramparts ranged from 100 to 400mm in diameter and were comprised of heaped small grained particles of crushed ice. These ice-rings contrast with the similar sized edge accumulations of ice-rings shown by those of Picture 3.

The ice-rings of Picture 3 can be seen to have ramparts that are composed of discrete areas of broken and rotated sheets of ice. Like the ice-rings type 1 the diameters were in the range of 100 to 400 mm. There appeared to be some evidence that these two distinct forms of ice-ring had been formed by two very different thermal-mechanical processes.

I am wondering if anyone else has observed these ice rings in New York? Or perhaps you have seen them somewhere else? Would be interested to know.

I would be even more interested in your ideas as to how they might have formed? I have my own theories but will spare you these at the moment since i am interested to hear your views.

an explanation of blog name

The toaroa is a shell fish found buried beneath the sands of New Zealand's coastal beaches (or should I say Aotearoa's beaches). Because they are such rare delicacies and consequently were for a long while plundered mercilessly, the toaroa was some 60 years ago in serious danger of becoming extinct and accordingly became protected by a law prescribing very limited times of year at which they could be dug-up. They remain protected to this day.

So why as a new blogger have I chosen to call my site after this exquisit antipodean shellfish?

First, one of the enduring memories of childhood on Waitarere, a delightful beach on the west coast of New Zealand some 70 miles North of Wellington, was the annual harvest of toaroa to allow my mother to make her delicious version of toaroa soup.

Second, despite their size, anything from 100 to 200 mm in length, they were devilishly difficult to locate. They were typically buried beneath 100 to 200 mm of sand and the only way of locating their position was a small tell-tail depression on the surface. Torn finger nails and bloody fingers were occupational hazards while digging them out as their smaller cousins - the pipi - protected them by getting in the way of the dig.

And third, the toaroa is a gorgeous creation of evolution and as far as I know unique to the shores of New Zealand.

I hope the toaroa will provide a metaphor for one of the aims of this blog - namely, to try and uncover the delights of science (well some restricted areas of science at anyrate) and encourage open dialogue of some of the issues that conventional science publishing seems more and more to be preventing from happening. This was brought home to me when thinking about a suitable outlet for sharing some observations and musings as to the possible causes of some curious ice rings that had formed on the ice sheet covering the Central Park Reservoir in New York during the recent blizards that hit the eastern seaboard of USA. In a later blog I will try to elaborate on these observations and musings. But in a way (if I can be excused for the pun) this was the tip of the iceberg. For some time I have, to a large extent unsuccessfully, been trying to suggest new ways of explaining certain natural and man made morphologies that appear to be incompletely understood. But have you ever tried to publish outside of your comfort zone? It is not easy. Like the toaroa many science disciplines have well and truly buried themselves away from all interferring outside influences. Like the toaroa their disciples protect themselves with a pipi-like protective shells. So I hope too that this blog will encourage discussion of all those aspects of the social/political organisation of science that are currently working against its true development.

So I have set an ambitious agenda for the toaroa blog. More to follow.